a peek into the head of a linguistics major,
also an english teacher... who struggles with english
a collection of the many words I think about (or struggle with)... too much
I’m not an author nor a poet, and these posts are not checked for grammar haha. Let this place be fun, relaxing and non-judgemental š xx
Corroborate
21 April 2025, 5.10pm
I read quite a bit of rom-coms. They are my little guilty pleasure, though honestly, should they be? More on that in another post. Today I want to talk about the word corroborate, which an author used in her dialogues. It means to confirm or give support to a finding, theory or a statement. What do you think of using lesser used words like this in books, even though they are supposed to be spoken. Sometimes I read out the dialogues and god do they sound wordy and unnecessarily long, but I suppose that’d be okay if you read silently. The long sentences feel comforting in fact, when you are in your reading zone, soaking up the descriptions of beautiful scenery, depictions of the character’s internal turmoil or newfound happiness, or the heartfelt confessions of a tortured lover. But what about audiobooks, won’t those sound terribly unnatural? Anyways, learned a new word!
Lissy xx
Panicking
19 April 2025, 5.56pm
Every time I share posts like this, I guess I have to google the meaning of the word. A while ago, I found out that panicĀ is both a verb and a noun, but I’ve always been much comfortable with using it as the latter form. “I ran to the kitchen in panic”, “the crowd dispersed in panic.” Easy. The verb, however, confuses me…
I found myself typing in my messages “panick” as a verb, as in, “Don’t panick”. Apparently, you add “k” to panic if you’re using it in the past tenses or continuous forms. So, panicking, or panicked is right. I mean, I always thought panick looks strange when I looked at itĀ (I do have a sense of language, after all), and most of the times, there’d be that scriggly red line underneath it confirming my suspicions that the word is wrong, but I couldn’t pinpoint why it looked so odd. Doesn’t panic LOOK like a verb?? Please tell me someone out there struggles (or struggled) with this word like me. Thankfully, this was easier to (un)learn than the word “restless” though, which still muddles with my mind, sometimes.
Lissy xx
Restless
18 April 2025, 6.06pm
It seems fitting that I start this blog with the word “restless”. After all, the idea to create this website popped out because I was restless. I’d always thought that you should use “restless” to describe someone who lacks rest, because -less is a suffix that means “without” or “lacking”. So I’d say something like “I’m feeling restless because I didn’t have enough sleep”. I’d use restless as a synonym of tired and exhausted, but with the naunce that the fatigue is a result of a lack of rest, which I come to realise was an incorrect use of the word. Slowly (idk how long this took me), I discovered that everyone else wasn’t using the word the way I was. This is the meaning gotten from Cambridge Dictionary:
restless (adjective):Ā moving because you are unable to relax, esp. because you are worried or bored, or (of an activity) having a lot of movement as a characteristic. So a correct sentence would beĀ The audience began to get restlessĀ (because they were bored of waiting) andĀ He dozed off to a restless sleep (he probably tossed and turned in his bed).
So, being restless (moving around) is the result of disinterest, worry, or boredom, and when you use restless to describe a lack of rest, you use it on activities, not humans. Sooo, you may say, I’m tired because I had a restless sleep, but not I’m restless because I didn’t have enough sleep. Alright, somehow, my head is still trying to process this.Ā
Now I’m using this correctly, I think. I tend to get restless in a long morning flight, because I’d either have a restless nap, or I would be bored of the entertainment options. For now, I’m desperate for a sleep, and I do hope it’ll be a restful one. Till next time!
Lissy xx